So, a day before graduation from basic training and we are all pretty excited. The next day, we will graduate and get a chance to take some leave before going to our new duty stations. However, this was not the case this time around. The day before graduation, we were told that due to the fact that our units of assignment are already deploying to Operation Desert Shield, our leaves would be canceled and we would go directly to our new duty stations. This did not settle well, after all, my parents, along with many others, were already in town for graduation and plans to get home (plane tickets, etc) were already taken care of.
Later that day, we were told that we would get our leave and it was not canceled. Some of us thought they were just messing with us, I just didn’t care and was glad to get a chance to go home the next day. But, this isn’t the whole story.
Now, for the rest of the story (my Paul Harvey thing). The night before graduation, we were all pretty excited and pretty much acting like idiots. I think the Drill Sergeants didn’t like that too much, so they came in and told us that the parade field that we would graduate on is covered in leaves and that we would not graduate until all of those leaves are gone. So, me and my 40 or so friends ran outside and commenced to picking up every single leaf by hand until the parade field was perfectly clean. Gotta love the motivational power of a good threat.
Dad and I thought you didn’t come home after Basic.
No, I came home. Remember, we stayed at the hotel that night, went to the Caverns the next day and then went home. I flew to Ft. Riley a couple of weeks or so after that. I think there is a picture somewhere of Rodney and I at home, both of us have nice fresh Army haircuts.